There are historical records of comets taking up the whole night sky...

A number of tabloids recently revived an astronomical theory about a large 'ninth planet' orbiting the outer reaches of the solar system and periodically crashing through a comet field - in this case, the Kuiper Belt - to send 'icy' space rocks our way. What makes the story remarkable for us is not the intriguing nature of the information it conveys - Sott.net has been covering a more well-founded variant of this theory for many years - but that even Rupert Murdoch's slimy British publication, The Sun, which thankfully bears no relation whatsoever to Sol, ran with it (albeit in super-dumbed-down form).

This is not the first time astronomers have suggested that something periodically disturbs comets situated somewhere on the outer rim of our solar system, sending some (or many, depending on your perspective) of them our way. 'Planet X' a.k.a. 'Nibiru' would be far too small to account for the effects attributed to it. Rather than speculating about 'a ninth planet', other astronomers have posited that such a space body is more likely to be a second sun - albeit a smaller, dark, 'dwarf' one. Its orbit would be so big that it would take it half-way to the nearest star. The theory goes that it disturbs comets in the Oort Cloud - which is basically an extension of the Kuiper Belt - as it 're-enters' the solar system.

Nemesis, not such 'pseudo-science quackery' after all

The History Channel's The Universe TV series aired this episode - 'Nemesis: The Sun's Evil Twin' - back in 2011:

A mysterious planet that wiped out life on Earth millions of years could do it again, according to a top space scientist.

And some believe the apocalyptic event could happen as early as this month - some are convinced there will be a collision or a near miss before the end of April.

We shouldn't need to comment on how ridiculous this is, but in case we do... The 'apocalypse' apparently doesn't happen overnight. If you've been following our monthly Earth Changes video series, then you may have noticed that the planet is going through an 'apocalypse' right now; a gradual but steady build-up of extreme weather events, meteor fireball sightings, and general planetary upheaval - a global trend that will probably continue to intensify for many more years to come.

This 'planet nine' is being widely reported as "newly discovered this past January." But if you check out the actual Caltech report from January, they say they have theorized the existence of such a planet based on "mathematical modeling and computer simulations." They have neither "discovered" nor "identified" a "large ninth planet."

The Sun continues:

The astrophysicist says the planet has a 20,000-year orbit around the sun and, at its closest to us, it knocks asteroids and comets towards Earth. Fossil evidence has suggested most of life on Earth is mysteriously wiped out every 26 to 27 million years.

Professor Whitmire claims Planet Nine's passage through a rock laden area called the Kuiper Belt is responsible for the "extinction events".

Conspiracy theorists in the 80s and 90s previously claimed a red dwarf planet called Nibiru or Nemesis, which orbits too close to Earth every 36,000 years, was behind the events.

The reason, of course, that 'journalists' are using this pejorative term is not to cast aspersions on Muller, nor even to single out the Nemesis variant of the theory, but to pooh-pooh the general concept of a cosmic mechanism that periodically wipes out, or 'prunes', life on Earth.

The spurious claim that a comet 'sent by' this 'ninth planet' is going to 'end all life on Earth' this very month may be why the mainstream is even bothering to touch this information. Like a whole slew of other 'end of the world' dates, when the prediction flops, many will assume there's nothing to worry about and join the media chorus in ridiculing all mention of incoming potentially hazardous comets.

For more on the (relatively) recent history of Earth's being on the receiving end of major (and minor) episodes of cometary bombardment, and why, see Laura Knight-Jadczyk's Comets and Catastrophe series:

Reader Comments

A failed star, brown dwarf, might not just spray sporadic comets as it churns back through our solar system. But it might bring it's very own solar system to crash through our solar system? 9 planets, (one being banned for being too small), an asteroid belt, and an oort cloud packed full of who knows what.

AHHH...!!! God coming to wipe us all out again...
Isn't he/she sick of it yet.
Why bother though...just leave us to our own devices...
We're very good at destruction & killing...
Maybe we learnt from the best...
Freaking Religion...it never ends no matter how many time it's been proven wrong in the past...

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.